James Governor just tweeted a post he wrote back in 2004: The Pub is the Place (for Creativity and Innovation). In it he quotes Prof Howard Trevor Jacobs:
“We are at our most productive when we share our thinking. One night of crazy brain-storming over a few beers is more likely to produce more exciting results than 20 years’ solitary study in the lab.
I like the whole post and James pretty much lives the philosophy he espouses.
Of course, most people organising meetings in organisations would regard any manifestations of pub-like conversations as terribly inefficient and undesirable.